Being that 2002 is the year of the palindrome, I will dedicate my first column of the year to this fascinating word trait. (Yes, we had a palindromic year only 11 years ago, but the previous nine were each 110 years apart, as will be the next nine.)
A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same backwards and forwards. It derives its name from the Greek, palin dromo, meaning "to run back again."
Traditionally, the recipient of the first palindrome was, appropriately enough, Eve, where Adam introduced himself with "Madam, I’m Adam." We must reject this anecdote, however, on the grounds that there were no witnesses to corraborate it.
The first verifiable palindrome is attributed to the Greek poet Sotades in the 3rd century B.C. According to legend, he accidently bumped the refrigerator, knocking his son’s magnetic letters onto the floor. As he went to pick them up he noticed that they spelled out the first palindromic phrase: NIYONANOMHMATAMHMNANOYIN, which translates to "You’ got chocolate in my peanut butter - You got peanut butter my chocolate." He was so excited about this new discovery, that he ran naked through the city streets shouting, "Wow!" Unfortunately, since neither chocolate nor peanut butter would be discovered for several centuries, the phrase was generally dismissed as nonsense.
Undisputedly, the most influential palindrome is "A man, a plan, a canal - Panama." It was written by Leigh Mercer in the late 19th century. At the time he penned it, there was neither a Panama Canal, nor a Panama Canal plan. In fact, there was not even a man with a plan. So, not wanting his new phrase to share the same fate as Sodates’, Mercer went to work. He lobbied Congress extensively to fund the great engineering feat. He also selected ex-president Theodore Roosevelt to be the "Man." This, it turned out, was not as easy as Mercer had thought. According to Roosevelt’s recent biography, "Nervous Rex," the former president was reticent about spearheading the canal endeavor. Eager to retain a good post-presidency image, he was certain to be aware of the anger that the previously constructed Albany-to-Buffalo canal had provoked. This was known as "Erie Ire," and Roosevelt wanted none of that associated with his name. But Mercer was relentless. After he failed to convince Roosevelt of the utiliarian merits of the canal, he finally revealed his legacy-building palindrome. This greatly appealed to Roosevelt’s verbal aesthetic. He immediately flew down to Panama where he oversaw the project and lived on a strict diet of wet stew, lion oil and an assortment of stressed desserts.
